Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas season update

Two weeks ago, Quentin got sick. Fever, etc., had to come home from school for a couple of days. A week ago, Jade got sick with a fever, etc. at the same time I started feeling yucky. She was better by the weekend, I got worse. Still not better. Christmas morning, Quentin wakes up nice and early...to empty his tummy. *sigh* Guess it's that time of year.



There has been a TON of snow outside. We were pretty much snowed in by Christmas Eve. (Our streets are at the bottom of the city's priority list, so we don't get plowed out too often.) I have gotten lots of exercise shovelling the driveway, and occasionally our neighbour's driveway, and parts of the street. The children enjoy playing in the snow. Jade still less than Quentin because she's just too little still to be able to move too well through that deep powder. And, the playing had to wait until the power came back on so we knew we'd be able to warm up after. (It went out for four hours on Christmas Eve.)



Tyler made a trek through the snow to pick up those important things for a Christmas dinner. I baked a pie. Quentin and I baked cookies for Santa and left some out with some carrots for the reindeer. Quentin didn't eat much of anything for Christmas dinner, maybe two bites. Jade's favourite item was the mashed potatoes, and she was really disappointed that we didn't have any brussel sprouts. She LOVES her brussel sprouts.



Both children are enjoying their presents. Jade thinks the bunkbeds she got for her dolls is portable, and pushes it around the house. Today she tried to push it down stairs which wasn't the wisest thing to attempt. I made a bright pink stove for her to cook for her dolls on too, and she's quite happy to do that. Quentin is playing his Wii games and his Wall-E laptop quite a bit. I think that we have a bit of a computer geek for a son. They both LOVE their new pajamas too.



Tyler's getting a little worn out taking care of the three of us. I'm worried that he's going to get ill before we have enough energy to return the favour.



Tyler has moved out of maintenance at work and is now back on the floor. This time he's not the floor manager, but is in charge of a crew for testing. It will be a couple years yet before there's room at BCIT for him to continue his schooling - fall of 2010 is what we've been told.



Speaking of 2010, we scooped up some tickets for the short track speed skating for the Olympics. I'm glad we got something! I think when the time comes, the kids (well, and us!) are going to be very excited to be a part of it.



Job prospects aren't looking that great for second semester this year. There's a definite shortage of teaching jobs right now in the lower mainland. The good news (?) is that I have been kept very busy all fall with on-call jobs. I don't see why that won't continue through to the end of the year if it needs to. I have discovered that working every day on-call is a lot more exhausting than working a full-time job and look forward to the day when I'm back in one school all the time. Whenever that may be.



Both children are signed up for soccer in January. It will continue until April. Quentin finished two sets of ice skating lessons with his daycare and really enjoyed them. Gymnastics is next. I just have to see if he's signed up for gymnastics on the weekend too or not. Jade's still signed up for music class, and we're trying to see where we can fit some dancing lessons for her into our very busy lives.



We hope that you've had a very merry Christmas, and that your new year is full of much love and happiness.



Take care.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Wowsers


Time has lost all meaning to me, because I just don't have any anymore. Apparently it's a LOT more exhausting to work everyday when one is filling in for other people than it is to just work full-time. I think I was only this tired when it was report card time and I was teaching English in year-long programs. So, yeah. The camera did get loaded into the computer, finally, but the pictures from the birthdays, Halloween, etc. just haven't been formatted for upload into the blog yet, and it's late and I want to go to sleep so I can deal with more hooligans that aren't mine tomorrow. This picture I had to format for another reason, so it gets posted here to show you we still exist. I know, Tyler's not in it, but I didn't make him an apron.

But.

Quentin is loving his new daycare at the school. He's gone through two sets of skating lessons, and loves skating. Laces work so much better than buckles, and I knew that when I bought the buckle skates, but I was hoping. (They were 1/4 of the price, and last for four shoe sizes.) Gymnastics is over for now, but he's going to go into it with his daycare, and I really need to check into whether or not I signed him up for another set. Quentin on a giant trampoline. Need I say more? He is also almost done his second set of soccer lessons. He's doing really well. School is good for him. He's having a few issues because he doesn't know what to do when he can't meet his own standards for himself, and his old daycare never taught him conflict resolution ("tell me and I'll deal with it" was how they used to get settled). But, he's doing awesome learning his letters, practicing sounding out words, recognizing common words, that sort of thing. His Christmas concert is in a week. Very small gym, and we've been warned by the school that they will turn away people because of fire regulations. However, they should have room on the Monday dress rehearsal if people could make that.

There is a Christmas pageant at the church on Sunday the 14th. Church starts at 10am. Tall puppet things will play some of the characters (Quentin will be inside one, Tyler might be in one too, or behind it, or...). Jade will play an angel. I will play...the other head of that angel? The speaking representation of that angel? I don't know. There's supposed to be three angels (I don't know why) and two are puppets with Jade the third angel that speaks, but she isn't going to speak so I'll be speaking for her, while I'm also dressed as an angel. Any which way, it should be interesting.

Tyler announced yesterday that he was going to take the half day off on Christmas Eve that he was supposed to work so that we could leave town for Christmas and come back on Boxing day. An hour later, he asked me where we were going to go. Yeah, well, thanks. I'm far too busy to have any clue what's happening at Christmas. Usually people plan where they'll be and who's coming over BEFORE the middle of December and things like announcing one is showing up at the last minute can be a trifle inconveniencing. Osoyoos, Kamloops, or actually having MY family over for dinner on Christmas are all possibilities, and I suppose there are others. If people are like us and haven't made concrete plans. Anyone want to vote on what we're doing? Anyone checking this blog still? :D
Hope all is well in your world!